Mar
07
2022
This was my first birthday without my Dad with me in person. Birthdays always involved dinner together with a beautiful mealtime conversation. Dad would share a favorite memory together from the year and then give me some words of...
Mar
03
2022
We often drove to Edmonton, Alberta, from Spokane when Shann and I were newly married. This long road trip afforded us hours of meaningful conversation. We began talking about death during a particularly boring stretch of highway, specifically of...
Mar
02
2022
In our early years of marriage, Shann rarely felt anger, never cried, never had much emotion at all. He lived with a consistently cheerful attitude. He never appeared bothered. However, he didn’t have access to his full range of...
Mar
01
2022
Mumbai is a city of 28 million people. There were slums and poverty everywhere we went. People live in tin slabs with tar paper roofs and tarps on the hardened mud floors. Chickens cower in metal crates prepared for...
Feb
28
2022
Our family traveled to India last week to work with those in severe poverty. I wore my Dad’s t-shirt – Relentless Pursuit of Excellence (one of his favorite phrases), a shirt my brother created in his honor. I knew...
Feb
25
2022
My Dad started talking about dying in the last few years. Honestly, it bugged me. I didn’t want to talk about his funeral; I didn’t want to have any of his possessions; I didn’t want to imagine my life...
Feb
24
2022
I have been thinking about skills and gifts my Dad had that I aspire to have in my life. One skill he had was the caesura pause. A caesura pause is a rhythmic pause in poetry for breath, emphasis,...
Feb
23
2022
Shann wrote the lyrics for an opera. I love to think about this. He is a poet, a researcher, a novelist, and a librettist (opera writer). He partnered with Father Waters from Gonzaga, and hopefully, we will see their...
Feb
22
2022
Dad and I loved to talk about Mary, the mother of Jesus. When we were in the Philippines, Dad was adored everywhere he went. He and Shann were on local television. Dad was like a rock star. I can’t...
Feb
21
2022
Here is an insight into conversations I would have with Dad. One of our favorite topics was how to live outside the external illusion.
Every healthy child exudes a natural joy: the celebration of bubbles or the delight in wrapping...
